Listening to Neverwhere and looking through BBC’s beautiful London Underground photo shoot prompted me to go back and look through my own pictures from my summer study abroad in London. Reading the novel only a few weeks before I left definitely influenced the way I experienced the city. Gaiman makes such clever use of London landmarks to create London Below, and I enjoyed finding the real life counterparts of London Below locations.
A bit hard to read, but the route was “Islington Angel.” Cue me taking a photograph. And for the life of me, ever angel statue in the British museum made me think of Islington.
“Oh my God, the floating market is in Harrod’s?"
It may not have been a floating bazaar in "London Above” but Harrods was fantastic nonetheless. This snapshot of the deli definitely reminded me a bit of Neil Gaimen’s portrayal of the Floating Market.
“Two thousand years before, London had been a little Celtic village on the north shore of the Thames, which the Romans had encountered, then settled in.”
A bit of an old Roman wall remaining in London reminded me of the Roman legionaries living in London Below.
“If this is the last door I open, let it take me somewhere safe.” (Tower of London)
It occurred to me quite a few times while I was in London just how many magical worlds were either inspired by Britain or contained some sort of portal to the British Isles. Neverland (2nd star to the right and straight on ‘till morning, as well as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens), Wonderland, Hogwarts, Avalon, and London Below, to name only some, added to the excitement of wandering around the city and I want to go back :)
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